Posts by Amy Gale

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  • Hard News: Awesome,

    Especially when Americans, far from being mean are actually by far the most generous in the world by many measures, such as charitiable giving.

    A lot of Americans seem to believe this. Often the same ones that believe the US has the best health care in the world.

    Ultimately it comes down to which numbers you're looking at - and the one Americans "win" on is private giving, internal to the US. Which includes things like

    - education (about 1/7 of all donations). A lot of this is massive donations by rich people who want tax breaks and buildings with their names on.

    - religions (about 1/3 of all donations).

    Letting people take deductions for donations like these undermine the tax base, and in a massively undemocratic way. Are they even charities? Debatable, if you ask me.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Southerly: The Joys of Unclehood,

    You all sound like a thoroughly lovely bunch of aunts and uncles, I must say. What nice readers we have at PA.

    I never realized before how massively unfair it was that I never got issued with my proper share of childfree aunts and uncles. (The pair I did get - though excellent in many respects - were most unsatisfactory in the over-sugaring and pyrotechnic departments, having already encountered a number of my older cousins.)

    I am resolved to set an extra bad example to nephews and nieces to make up for my own deprivation. Anyone want to send their kids over so I can practice?

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Stories: The Internet,

    Costello-l. The Elvis Costello discussion listserv.

    You just can't get a nerdier starting place than that for a long-term relationship. I'm sorry. You can all try, but you will not top it. It is totally ludicrous.

    Oh, lightweight city. I'll see your "we were discussing actual music, by a someone people have actually heard of" and raise you "my officemates met his advisor at a computer security workshop and he told them he wanted his student to meet a nice girl".

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Stories: The Internet,

    I know the internet industry is typically male-dominated, and back in the day it was even more male-dominated than it is now, but it was never that male-dominated.

    Yeah, what does a girl have to do to get on that list, anyway? Tell off Trevor Rogers at a public meeting? Have a website so popular that her impoverished university asks her to offshore it? Have been listed on the once-infamous Babes Of The Web? Date [name redacted]?

    Pfft, I say. Pfft.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Southerly: Primary School for Beginners,

    The next year I was taught by Miss Miniskirts-long-legs who stood at the door after bell and whacked each child with a ruler as they came through the door late.

    Too many readings of The Story About Ping, perhaps. This is why it is so critical that school libraries be well-resourced.

    Some of these stories are heartbreaking. I want to go back in time with Danielle for some serious littlie-hugging (and bully-smiting).

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Hard News: Beijing: Ignoring it is not…,

    ..."Seventh Day Adventists" or "The Jesus Christ Church of Later-day Saints" as they are known for short...

    Not the same thing, fwiw.

    Although now I'm wondering what a 7DA parallel to Big Love might look like.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Busytown: If you build it...,

    Hmm. Your teacher didn't teach you to use a couple of posts lying down on each side, and then a couple more on the other sides to hold it up (in a cross formation)?

    For the setting phase, but not for the desperately important no moving at all while I shovel or everything will be ruined forever phase. You can't send 8-by-8s to do a woman's job...

    (Who has the most overengineered raised bed in tha Ith? Us, that's who.)

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Busytown: If you build it...,

    I think sinking a post is a very useful life skill.

    Ah, and such a part of one's kiwi childhood. I even got to pass it along a couple of years ago when we were doing some yardwork:

    "Ok, now I hold the post and you shovel in the concrete. And I try really really hard to hold it still, but the shock of the concrete splats makes it move a little bit, and then you yell at me."

    And I did, and he did, and it did, and he did.

    Related the entire story to my dad on the phone later. He laughed for about twenty minutes.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Hard News: Part of nearly all our lives,

    Data point: one "very elderly" (over 90) NZ person of my acquaintance stopped using the internet when his eyesight got too bad.

    People are going to land in different places when figuring tradeoffs for acquiring/learning accessibility tools. Two possible factors for very elderly people are that they have spent a smaller percentage of their lives addicted to being online, and don't have employability concerns to factor in.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Readers' Tips,

    Andrew, ordering a short or long black is always advisable when going somewhere new in Sydney.

    ...and is never advisable when going anywhere in the USA.

    I've heard various accounts of strategies for getting what you want here, but maintain that the best payoff comes from my approach: just learn to drink 'coffee' their way.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

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